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Email marketing continues to be the hub and a driving force in cross-channel integration, according to an Experian Marketing Services market survey addressing email acquisition and engagement tactics.

The survey of email marketers about their email-marketing initiatives, including their strategies for subscriber acquisition, mobile and social marketing, testing and creative design shows; 44% of total opens occur on mobile devices; 52% of marketers have used animated gifs in their email campaigns; marketers are seeing strong survey completion rates, regardless of offer; email is a strong performer as a generator of both website traffic and revenue; email marketers are testing subject lines and creative more than any other factors; 78% of brands use sales associates to collect email addresses.

The continued effectiveness of email marketing makes email address acquisition a prime tactic for a high return on investment (ROI). Today’s email marketers are using multiple channels to acquire new subscribers:

Pop-up windows: 22% of brands utilize pop-up windows on their Websites; nearly one in four Websites

Paper collection: 36% of brands still collect email addresses on paper. This practice exposes brands to a higher potential for bad addresses and input errors.

E-receipts: More marketers are implementing e-receipts, as they can provide marketers and customers with benefits, including up-sell and engagement opportunities.

Required fields: 30% of marketers make no fields in a registration form mandatory, focusing first on acquiring an email address and then using other tactics, such as preference centers and surveys, for acquiring more information about customers later

Marketers can no longer blast their list with irrelevant messaging without experiencing negative consequences, both from customers and ISPs, says the report. Email marketers are adopting more tactics to track behaviors and acquire subscribers’ preferences and interests in order to market to them more effectively:

73% of marketers source and track email addresses acquired at point of sale differently than other addresses

33% of marketers report that more than 25% of their customers are willing to provide their email address at point of sale

The extensive report concludes by noting that “whether you are looking to grow your list through organic subscriber acquisition, or create more engaging campaigns that produce higher ROI, the study findings provide a benchmark to help gauge which programs would work best for your business. To read the full report go here.